Exact Minutes
by percychased
Summary: Things wouldn't always be perfect, but Lysander would always come back for Lucy.


**Three hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty-five seconds. **

Now, Lucy Weasley wasn't the type of girl who _always _had to have a boy by her side. No, not at all. If anything, that was her sister.

But when said girl is stuck at her flat, alone, freezing and unable to sleep, she's looking at the clock, following the long hand that meant another minute had passed. Another minute that he'd been gone; however, it was also another minute until he'd get back.

Lucy didn't like the risks he jumped into, and was very vocal about her opposition to the danger. Her family had shared the tales of war, and even though things were much, much safer now, she didn't like reliving it. She didn't know where he went, or when he'd be back.

It _was _Lysander Scamander, though - did she _really _expect him to take a 9-5 desk job?

And he had just left a few hours ago; she should really save the worrying, he was perfectly alright... she just didn't want to deal with everything on her own.

**Twelve hours, twenty-three minutes, six seconds. **

Lysander didn't like leaving Lucy in such a fragile state; her face had turned pale and her eyes had went all wide, like they always did when he informed her that the Aurors were going on a mission. More Death Eater Activity, even twenty or so years after the Dark Lord had been defeated. Lysander was started to think that it wouldn't ever stop.

"Scamander, get your head out of the clouds. Lestrange could hex us to the ground and you wouldn't even notice."

"Sorry."

"Just don't do it again," said Allen, a large, burly man who was fiercely loyal but also quite strict; as Harry, the head of the Aurors, wasn't with the small group consisting of Lysander, Allen, a brilliant, slightly intimidating older woman called El, and Jean, a new graduate of the Auror program, Allen was in charge, and he was running a tight ship.

He also had the habit of calling Lysander (but nobody else) by his last name.

"Last we heard, he was up around Edinburgh. Edinburgh has a magical community; but it isn't large. We'll be in groups of two - Jean and I, Scamander and El. You know what to do. Harry briefed us on what our mission was. Remember: even if they Crucio you, _don't _Crucio back. If you Crucio them too, we won't be able to use it against Lestrange when we take him to the Wizengamot."

"Good luck, group."

And with those final words, they were off.

**One day, one hour, two minutes.**

_"It'll probably take around three days. Don't worry, Lucy, I'll be fine." _

It had barely been twenty-four hours, but Lucy was anxious for him to come home. It was stifling and alone in that flat. She got back from her part-time job at Flourish and Blotts, tired after tending to the back-to-Hogwarts crowd, and went to visit her mother. That was the same routine, _every single bloody day _and it got _so _incredibly boring.

Lucy knocked at her parents' door, knowing only her mother was home.

"Hello, sweetheart," said her mother warmly, opening the door and smiling tiredly up at her daughter. Her mother always looked tired nowadays, and Lucy couldn't pinpoint why.

"Hey, mum," replied Lucy, returning the hug.

"Your father wants to talk to you."

Lucy stiffened.

"I don't want to talk to him."

Audrey sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, creases evident on her forehead.

"I know what he said was inexcusable, and I'm not too happy, but you're going to have to talk to him sometime."

"I don't want to," huffed Lucy, rather immaturely, "it's just going to turn into another match of yelling accusations and insults back and forth."

"I know... but we need to be a _family. _The four of us, not three, not two."

"I don't know about that, Mum. I'll give it a try, maybe sometime."

"That's all I asked for."

**Two and a half days, one hour, fifty-five minutes. **

They had seen and heard neither hide nor hair of Lestrange the whole mission, and El was desperate and rather annoyed.

"He can't be in Edinburgh, then," she sighed, fiddling with the wedding ring on one of her fingers.

"We know he didn't leave the British Isles through Muggle nor magical means; and the farther away he is from London and the Ministry, the harder time we'll have finding him. I bet you Lestrange knows that," Lysander reasoned.

"Good thinking, but there _was _activity around here, if only we could find an item of his to trace him to," El murmured. She scribbled something on a piece of parchment before looking back up at Lysander.

**One week, two hours, twelve minutes**

"Lucy? Lucy, where are you -"

Lysander's sight was suddenly impaled by red hair, a pair of arms thrown tightly around his neck.

"You're back," grinned Lucy, planting a kiss on his lips, "you're back!"

"I'll always come back for you," he said sweetly, causing his girlfriend to dig her head into his shoulder.

"Good," said Lucy. Through all of the messed up happenings in her life, one thing was constant - _Lysander. _

* * *

_For Camp Potter - Tech Discovery. Using the mandatory prompt._

_Also for Gods and Goddesses competition; Hermes. Someone going on a trip._

_Popular Song Competition - Die Young._

_Word Count: 872._


End file.
